Leaderboard

Went with the kids this weekend. Blanked the first 24hours. Then we got focused. Decided I wasn't happy with my main spot, so I put my big boy pants on and went for it 18.5 wraps, 2 rods or the horizon and one on the edge of some reeds where I had seen some bubbles, I had prebaited my daughters spot the night before with some boilies and left it, naturally that one was the first to go at 10pm, she cast it and felt for the drop herself and we baited it with 5 x spods and a few extra boilies she pulted into the zone, it ripped off when we were tucked in and listening to a book on audible. The summer I robbed a bank by David O'Doherty, if you have kids it's a great book. And naturally it decided to wipe out all my other rods, but we got it in and I cleared up the mess it made. (yes I was done in and a bit sun rouged) We lost her rod in the carnage and she wanted to sleep so one of mine went onto her spot, one to the long spot and one to the left. We were awoken to a savage take from the long rod. This came in like a ball of weed until it got in range of my other lines. Took the right one out. During the photos I had an out of body experience. Then I ditched the right hand rod spot and went long, so with 2 on the spot I whacked out another 10 X spods and had breakfast. Then the right hand long rod was away,we had spotted them all showing in the middle the evening before and this spot gave me the best shout not being able to move, this one came in well and we moved the other rods out of harms way, fought hard close in but without hassle, and although the smallest of the trio of commons but finished off the trip nicely. Lovely weekend with the kids, had lots of fun and caught 3 and lost none, we did some bird spotting, saw some fish on the other lake spawning and caught some fish Happy days.

I actually disagree. Yes you'll always come across an idiot now and again but on the whole anglers are a good bunch. Even on day tickets I tend to engage with the lads next door and 9 times out of 10 I hit it off with them and respect is shown mutually. There's the odd idiot in all walks of life but you can't tar everyone with the same brush. On syndi's with big fish (i.e. circuit waters) you'll always have some anglers more driven than others, that's normal. Some are happy to pick a nice spot and sit behind the rods for 48 hrs. Others won't sit down until they've done everything they possibly can to get a bait in front of whatever carp they can find. Different approaches but neither can say the other is wrong as long as rules are respected. On day tickets it's often inexperience rather than a lack of etiquette that causes problems. In these cases some tactful education can go a long way. Club waters are a mixed bag. In my experience they do less to vet members so the % of idiots is higher. But that doesn't mean 9 out of 10 aren't good lads. I was on a popular day ticket water on the last bank holiday. It was rammed. I found some carp and first thing I did was ask the nearest angler where his rods were so we didn't interfere with each other. Next morning another chap showed up and went the other side of me. First thing he did was ask me where my rods were so he didn't interfere. You can't ask for more than that. Respectful lads enjoying some fishing on a VERY busy water. Id' say this is the norm, and the horror stories in this thread are not. Spot on. You pays your money and you take your chances. As long as it's kept respectful everyone is in the same boat.

Hate to say to Elmo but I was expecting this post! There is no substitute for well engineered gear! 😔

The camera i use can be linked to a VTX for FPV, at present its just for recording. The hopper is a flipper and dont like ejecting wet particles like corn, a fair bit sticks in the hopper but dry bait like boillies fling out just fine

Everywhere is packed out these days and the more large carp waters are getting a bit too controlled via the online booking and peg selection before you arrive, really depends what part of the country you are in, south east Midlands has great choice where as it's more match pleasure venues near me.

Saying that I did do a reccy last week to see if I could see any signs of the larger ones said to be in hiding I found this little tank mooching about, if you can make out the dark shape not a good pic.

Any weekend fishing is pretty great but it is nice share it sometimes. I think my eldest is slightly more keen though. Her casting is getting better, that's what she enjoys most tbh. I think I like casting too, satisfying when it's bang on,the best when it ends in a bite 😂

Very good, i didn't see the point of a boat camera until I watched this but I can now see I was wrong, could be useful for identifying far bank snags. would be interested to see how the hopper works 👍

Yeah same, even on the syndicate if its busy, most people have respect for one another, when i pitched up Friday I was next to one guy I'd never met, he had forgotten his kettle and stove so I lent him mine, we got chatting and all was good, i asked if he minded me setting up next door and he didn't. I walked round with the family bumped into some other members and had a good chat, no one was stepping on one another toes and everyone was friendly. Can't ask for more than that really.

Sounds like a great weekend 😃👍

Sounds like you had a perfect weekend mate, well done on the fish 👍… Can’t lie the matrix glitch on the second pic freaked me out a bit

Just My take on prebaiting. If I can or think it's worth it I will do it, if I do it's tough if someone else fishes that swim, what I've been doing recently is baiting whole areas with handfuls so I always have a back up and can slot in wherever. would I tell them I had baited it? No I don't want to ruin their buzz, would I want someone to tell me they had been prebaiting if I caught on it? Course not. Neither would I want someone to tell me where they have been baiting. "Let me stop you there mate, I don't want to hear it because then I won't be able to fish any swims if everyone tells me their plans" If I see fish fizzing will I stick a rod on it. You bet your sweet bippy I will 😎 I think the moral of the story if you want to prebait, do it off your own back, don't rely on the kindness of strangers,and don't tell anyone. Be covert, be a secret squirrel. Oh yeah and don't be a Richard about it and ruin everyone else's fishing.

I did maiden voyage of the bargain bucket bait boat, all i can say it does what it claims to do and for the price its stunning, here is some footage from my on board mini action camera

Been doing quite well on tigers nuts recently and this one is the best so far at 33lb 5oz.

Got out for a night over the bank holiday. The syndi is closed for spawning so I visited a day ticket down in the Nene Valley. It was absolutely rammed as one might expect given the timing, but I managed to find a few carp in a quiet corner. It was dead hot, so I flicked a couple of zigs out just under the surface. It was clear the carp were just sunbathing, so I was expecting to have to wait for the sun to drop behind the trees for any action. So it proved with a take around 19:30 which resulted in a lovely grey linear. Onto the deck for the night and I realised I had a problem – I’d forgotten the spod rod! I found one of those Wolf X-Spod jobbies in my bag (bought it ages ago and never used it) and bodged it onto one of my carp rods. It worked a treat…. those X-Spod thingys are great! I put 2 on the deck and left one up in the water. At 02:30 I was away off the baited spot and a nice little cricket bat common was landed. Re-did the rod and 04:30 saw an awesome chestnut linear landed - worth a pic this one. Photo’s done, I was half expecting that to be it but at 09:00 the zig rod went. It kited to my right past several other anglers and the hook pulled when I over-gunned it trying to stop it. Still, a good sign. In come the rods on the bottom, zigs on all of them, and back out they go. About 10:30 I get another take and another cricket bat common is in the net. I planned to stay a bit longer after that but as the heat increased, I decided I was happy with what I’d had so called it a day. A great little session in the end.

Rooblinos update. It wasn't as good as the aerlex. Pretty quickly started sounding like a bag of spanners, And it broke my spod rod when I got a wind knot on the braid when giving it the biggun. I actually used the same braid on the aerlex and it didn't cause any issues and I was hitting 18.5 wraps like a boss, straight through with the trusty x spod and a whiny spod rod with no insert in the tip ring.